


Evidence of Things Not Seen

by Raven (singlecrow)



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-27 02:28:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1711631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singlecrow/pseuds/Raven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We're really looking at Data as he would be if he were human," Geordi says, wonderingly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evidence of Things Not Seen

All of this begins, probably, because of that thing Commander Riker talks about, about the weirdness quotient on starships called Enterprise being at least twelve times higher than surrounding space at all material times. But at the particular moment it begins, Geordi is just wondering if there's anything to eat on Deep Space Nine that doesn't taste like liquid polymer when a young ensign touches him on the shoulder and says, "Excuse me. I'm looking for someone. Um…" – he looks momentarily awkward – "he probably goes by 'Data'."

Geordi nods. "That's him over there – hey, Data, someone's looking for you."

Data turns around so the kid gets a proper look at him and it's hard to read his expression, but Geordi thinks he looks… disappointed? And then he drops his tray with so much clattering that Constable Odo comes over from the other side of the replimat and says, "Can I help you, gentlemen?" 

From Geordi's unique viewpoint, the kid looks like he might faint at any moment. Data seems to be thinking the same thing. "I think," he says, taking in the situation with steady eyes, "we should consult Dr. Bashir."

*

In sickbay, Julian looks up at the sight of Odo, Data, Commander La Forge and a stranger trundling in like some sort of strange procession. "What can I do for you, gentlemen?" he asks, adding, "Who's your friend?" He doesn't know the ensign in operations gold, so he's probably not stationed on Deep Space Nine, but that doesn't mean anything: both the Enterprise and the Navratri are in dock with crew complements of more than a thousand people each. Apparently Deep Space Nine is a popular shore leave choice, these days. It must be all the Klingon restaurants.

"My name is Data," says the kid. After the awkward silence, he says, embarrassedly, "Okay, no one's name is actually Data, I know. It's a nickname my mom gave me when I was a kid and it stuck. Why… are you all looking at me like that?"

Julian, suddenly seized with a horrible suspicion, runs a tricorder over the ensign, making sure a complete genetic workup is included in the scan, and sighs. "Well, Data," he says, not sure who he's talking to, "it seems as though we've met a relative of yours."

*

Chief O'Brien, who served on the Enterprise for many years, reports that this sort of transporter accident has been documented before. "I know, though," the ensign tells him. "There's a Miles O'Brien on my version of the Enterprise too. He would have said that. I mean, at first I didn't realise. I've never been to Deep Space Nine before in any universe. But then – people all looked… different? I saw a Klingon Starfleet officer, and there are Bajorans here but they wear different uniforms, and…"

Miles looks faintly shellshocked. "I'm stationed here, now," he says, a little confusedly. "I mean, I've left the Enterprise."

"I remembered that story about what happened to Captain Kirk," the kid says. "I thought if this really is another universe, then I need to find myself, because at least I'll be able to help me, right? But there isn't another version of me in this universe."

Julian sighs deeply, and Geordi looks across at him. "Oh, yes, there is, Ensign. Tell me. Did your parents ever talk to you about certain experiments they were conducting around the time you were born?"

"You know who my parents are?"

"Noonian Soong and Juliana O'Donnell," Data says, not looking at him but out through the windows to the Promenade, and Geordi might be imagining it, but he sounds more expressionless than usual. "You were born at a Federation outpost on Omicron Theta."

"Yeah," the kid says, looking from the back of Data's head to Julian, and back again, and now he sounds really scared. "What do you mean, _experiments_?"

*

Naturally, Geordi thinks, Data – his Data – is the calmest person in this scenario. "Why did you ask Geordi for help, when you saw him in the replimat?" he asks.

The ensign – Ensign Data, Geordi thinks, trying that on for size, and then realises that's not right. "Ensign Soong, isn't it?" he asks, and the kid nods. Geordi keeps thinking of him as a kid even though he's probably precisely the same age as Data is. Twenty-six years old. That’s a weird thought.

"I recognised you," he says. "There's a Commander La Forge on my Enterprise too. Though he outranks me. Like – you do," he adds, awkwardly, trying and failing to make eye contact with Data. 

"I have been in service more than twenty years," Data tells him, and that's a studied expressionlessness, Geordi thinks. Oh, hell.

"I guess... you would be." A pause. "Look, they never talk about their research." Another pause. "Sentient androids!" He waves his hands around. "I had no idea they were involved in anything so…"

_Fringe_ , Geordi thinks. But then: in this universe, it worked.

"It is probable," Data says, steadily, "that they had advanced to the initial experimental stages of my construction, and then abandoned the project."

_How'd you figure that_ , Geordi wants to ask, and then gets it. The name, hanging around without an owner. Hell.

*

"You don't need to tell me, sir," Miles says, when Sisko contacts him. "I'm working on a way to send him home right now."

Over the com, Sisko says, "I knew I could count on you, Chief" – and that sets Geordi off wondering about the Deep Space Nine weirdness quotient, and whether you could maybe graph it against the Enterprise's.

"The resemblance is quite marked," Bashir says, softly, beckoning him over. Geordi moves a little closer, following his gaze to Data and the ensign, both sitting on the edge of a biobed at the end of sickbay, talking quietly about who knows what. Sisko has said, quite reasonably, that they probably shouldn't let a stranger from another universe roam Deep Space Nine on his own, Starfleet or not. "I know you don't see them the same way I do, Commander. But I can see it."

"You said," Geordi says, a little confusedly, "when you scanned him, that he was related to Data. How can that be?"

"Data has organic components," Bashir explains. "The tricorder responds to their signature like anything else organic. If you cloned a human from the DNA from them, that human would be identifiably related to our new friend over there."

"We're really looking at Data as he would be if he were a human," Geordi says, wonderingly. "What does he look like to you, Doctor?"

Bashir considers. "He's about the same height as Data. He must take after his father. Blue eyes, though. And he doesn't have Data's… lack of affect, of course."

"Yeah," Geordi says, "about that. How similar are they in personality?"

Bashir shrugs. "I'm no Betazoid, and we've just met the kid. But…" He waves a hand. 

"Yeah," Geordi says. "I know."

*

The Chief requests that Captain Sisko, Geordi, Julian, Data… and Data, report to the transporter pad in Ops. They make their way there via the Promenade upper levels and Julian notices that Data's guest seem to have got beyond the initial awkwardness and is now asking questions about Data's construction and history, his eyes widening at the idea that there was more than one, that there was another android that was...

"Differently ethical," Julian puts in, and thinks he catches a glimpse of Data's smile. 

"That makes sense, though," says the ensign, his eyes caught by something on the other side of the Promenade so he's not looking at them for a second. "You must take after our mother."

"Excuse me?" Data says, his turn for widened eyes, and then it's too late: they're on the slow-moving platform downwards and getting off in Ops. They don't even attract all that much attention from the command staff, Julian thinks. Not like if a doppelganger of, say, him had appeared from another universe. Chief O'Brien takes some scans and asks their guest to mount the pad, and that seems to be that. "It's been… interesting," he says, as he clambers up. "Thanks for your help getting me home."

He's starting to look shocked again, as though the reality of what's just happened to him is sinking in. "Dinnertime conversation in the Soong household is going to be awkward for a while," Geordi whispers in Julian's ear, and he stifles a smile.

"It was good to meet you," Data says, suddenly.

"And you, Commander," the kid replies, very sincerely, and Chief O'Brien snaps his fingers.

"Energise," Sisko says, and there's the usual dim sparkle, but leaving behind it a strange silence, and a collective shiver. As though, Julian thinks, someone walked all over all their graves. And then the light on the pad blinks to nothing, and they all look at each other and shrug, and smile. Except, of course, for Data, who merely stands there with his eyes on the pad, as though still looking for evidence of things not seen.

*

"Data," Geordi says, as they walk back towards the Promenade, "we like you better."

"You're much more interesting," Bashir agrees. "Both – ah, scientifically and personally."

"Thank you both," Data says, and that isn't, Geordi's thinking, a lack of affect.


End file.
